I was catching up on my blog-reading (it's a hopeless, endless task, but I persevere), and came across Because the middle of the road is no place to sit down at Blog@Newsarama, all about how people tend to expect so little from comics in terms of quality that anything that comes out that's above-average in any way rates unrealistically high praise. Which is both interesting and probably true.
Partly, I'm sure, this is because a number of comic readers seem to be constantly on the defensive about their chosen reading matter, and jump on anything they find that puts that matter in a more sophisticated light. You know, because of that whole comics=kid stuff and/or comics=lowbrow thing.
Now, I am definitely more of a comfort reader (to use a term brought up in the comment section of the above link) when it comes to my comics. I do pick up new things, start reading new characters, but they're generally going to be of the same type as the superhero books I've read all my life. It's what I like, and I don't feel a need to apologize for it. Never have. (Anyone who, twenty years ago, brought Legion of Superheroes to high school to read during study hall clearly isn't too worried about what people think. :))
The division between popular culture and big-C Culture has been with us for...well, forever. And, often, it's the popular culture that comes out on top in terms of audience and money-making. (Thus the term "popular.") This trend has only become more pronounced with the increased compartmentalization of society.
But I'm starting to ramble. What I meant to get at is that iff mediocrity is what you usually find in comic books, it's pretty much the same situation as in any other media. I haven't noticed any growing trend toward excellence in television or movies--on the whole, what you find most often is what's average. (Mathematically speaking, that only makes sense.) I really think that the tendency to over-praise adequate comics comes from the novelty of the notion that comics can aspire to excellence.
1 comment:
I think mediocrity is a standard trait of pop-culture, period. Pop-culture tends to be easy and easily-accessible entertainment, nothing more, per the parameters set up for each medium (TV, movies, novels, paintings, drawings, comic books, video games, etc.) As with ALL forms of art, the truly good stuff takes on a life of its own and rises above its medium. The mediocre stuff stays mediocre and eventually becomes forgotten, except by those people interested in a particular pop-culture history.
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